Stegelin's Cartoon: Civil War Sesquicentenial

Founded in 1997, the locally owned and operated City Paper is Charleston's only weekly alternative newspaper and the second-largest publication in the metro Charleston area. Reaching a strong mix of active, affluent locals and tourists, the City Paper has thrived...

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On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the battle of Fort Sumter, MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow said on her evening program, "The fact that the first shots were fired in South Carolina specifically came as no surprise."

The Civil War Sesquicentennial observance is over, and I'm already thinking about the bicentennial. In the meantime, I would like to hand out kudos to the people of Charleston and South Carolina for the way they conducted themselves through these uncertain times of change.

On Tuesday, we heard the first shots of the Civil War re-enacted at Fort Sumter, 150 years after the real shots that inspired them. At first blush, it would seem that all is peace, nostalgia, and remembrance in the sesquicentennial of America's bloodiest war.

There is a difference between being politically incorrect and being racist. But there is no difference between whitewashing Southern history and refusing to tell the region's entire history, which requires deviating from the politically correct parameters of black and white.

Instead of rehashing our disagreements about how the Civil War started, we should ask if there are lessons that can be learned from the conflict that are still applicable today. Although the specific issues may have changed, several others are still relevant.

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